37 replies to this topic

[Beastformers]

Just bumped into this fresh Ebay listing:

GBB Decoy Ebay

I've no idea what to think of it............ it might be cool but what would it have been used for?
It looks a little customized or home fabricated to me on one end while he also is not even having the right arms but the Elephants' ones.

Any stories about this decoy!?



He looks fun with that scale difference but that's it for the moment.

Edited by GJNL, 02 May 2012 - 07:41 AM.

[organicbeets]

Yea, i saw that, have no real idea of where it came from, kinda sweet though. Looks to me like the arms are solid to the body, with no movement?

[Beastformers]

Yea, i saw that, have no real idea of where it came from, kinda sweet though. Looks to me like the arms are solid to the body, with no movement?

Correct, the arms are solid.
I'm trying to get the story clear behind this little fellow and I'm making some good progress with it, just have to get a few things verified back from Greece again to be sure about it and that I'll post an update in this topic.
Looks like there's an interesting story to tell on him.

Edited by GJNL, 02 May 2012 - 09:31 AM.

[Soupie]

I have this guy. Not sure if he's related.

http://minifigures.b...abulary_10.html

[Beastformers]

I have this guy. Not sure if he's related.

http://minifigures.blogspot.com/2010/12/figabulary_10.html

Hmmm he might be related to this blue boar.......... still trying to get the story cleared.
Any more information on that figure Soupie except the fact it originated in Greece, was it offered to you as a BB bootleg or is it something you've found out yourself in time? And is it made of hard plastic or rubber like the BB?

In case you might have a regular or Greek BB available I'd appreciate it if you can post a similar pic of the figure beside the normal sized BB to see if we're talking about the same scale difference here. If so I'd say they belong to the same line and will have the same background story.

Thnx for sharing and if you can get a similar pic of your fig on it would be even more clear!

Edited by GJNL, 02 May 2012 - 12:00 PM.

[Beastformers]

OK, after some reseach I guess I've a cleared the story of their history after contacting the seller and after I've verified his story amongst some other BB connections in Greece.

When and where available?
These Greek Battle Beasts Bootlegs were available in the late '80s or begin '90s in Greece but unlike the GBB these were not for sale in a toyshop since they came as a surprise gift in a ice cream cup. Think everybody knows these ice cups with their double bottom and a little toy underneath it which you could find after eating the ice cream. So that's were these little BB bootlegs could be found.

But are they related to the El Greco Factory in Greece?
Yes and no, these little bootlegs were produced by an Ice cream company which got the licence from Psilikoko which was a subsidairy from El Greco. Its not totally clear if this license was transfered or if their design was used legally. During that time the legal frame on copyrights was ''loose'' back, so it was not uncommon for something like that to happen and these bootlegs got released. So eventhough the company that produced these bootlegs did have connections with El Greco there are serious doubts if the were directly connected to them.

Which Ice cream cups?
During the late '80s and begin '90s two companies in Greece offered these cup-toy concepts one of them which is the one that's mentioned to most is EVGA (ΕΒΓΑ in Greek) that sold the Karampola (ΚαÏ￾αμπόλα) and the other was Delta (Δέλτα) with the Lucky Cup. It was common in Greece in the '80s that ice cream companies co-operated with toy companies. Both of them kept selling from the early 80s all the way to the mid 90s. During that time they were constantly changing the toys according to what was wanted at the time or what was playing on TV etc. You could find anything from Mickey Mouse figures, Garfield, little soldiers, GI JOE, Battle Beasts bootlegs, Exogini bootlegs, keychains, toy bikes and cars etc. Anything that could fit in there.

The BB bootlegs appeared sometime in the late '80s.

Why didn't they show up so far when these Bootlegs were actually for 'free'?
The reason you don't see them very often nowadays is simply, because at the time they were considered toys and we used to play our heart out of them until they were broken, lost or destroyed. Also Moms are a big factor on their disappearance. Greek moms are obsessed with cleaning. Cleaning children rooms, cleaning warehouses, cleaning everything!!! Once we were old enough and left home, most of them were dumped as trash.

How many are known?
By now its clear that Soupie's Yellow Crab belongs to this line as well so with that 3 of these Greek BB bootleg figs are known.
This Blue Boar, the Yellow Crab and the Green Tortoise the Greek seller is mentioning in his auction.
Soupie's figure got quite some attention a couple of years ago on this board in a topic on Exogini. The old topic
In the end this figure (Yellow Crab) got sold in a private transaction.
And now Soupie is the lucky one to have one in his collection.

Which material was used?
So far it looks like the same material has been used that was used for BB and exogini figures so they're not made of hard plastic but rubber-like material similar to the Greek Battle Beasts. UPDATE: There might have been a little miscommunication on this point since to me they looked like hard plastic figs in the beginning (confirmed by Soupie bellow) but this didn't came totally trough in the communication as the seller clearly stated a more flexible plastic was used similar to exogini and GBB. As for now I think hard plastic it the most safe and reliable to say as material being used.

How many colors?
By now its clear that their idea on the color (was stolen?) came from the original GBB and similar to them these BB bootlegs were produced in a huge amounts of colors and due to that its easy to say they can show up in almost all known colors.

So far the story on these little mini GBB bootlegs or decoys.

Thanks to xag (board member) and the seller for all the information and verifying important parts of it.
I think that with this story we've another piece of GBB history revealed!

Edited by GJNL, 02 May 2012 - 05:16 PM.

[Soupie]

Thanks for doing all this great research, mate!

I've been pulling my hair out for the past 30 minutes because I realized that I've seen that blue boar sculpt before. I've got hundreds of pics of mini figures on various servers, and I've been searching through them but couldn't find it. I was starting to go crazy.

Fortunately, I remembered the website where I first saw the figure. It's an awesome Greek toy forum (probably a big old toy honeypot) that I can't figure out how to join due to the language barrier. Every time I try to make an account, it fails.

Here's the site: Retromaniax. And here's the thread where I got the pic: Aliens. Maybe someone here can join and work an awesome trade or something. (Remember me if you do!)

Also, the yellow Crab I have is made of hard plastic.

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•  CrabBBMini.jpg   302.24K   108 downloads

[trumanshower]

i had never realised that yellow crab was so little compared to a Battle Beast ! great find guys, and thanks for you investigations GJNL

[organicbeets]

Anyone have any idea of a value for this little guy... or is it as usual "who wants it the most"

[Soupie]

Well, I am horrible at determining the value of toy, but as I own the yellow crab, here are my thoughts.

The quality of the figure is pretty low. The yellow crab is made of a light weight, hard, brittle plastic. There was lots of seepage from the mold, so there is a large flashing line the whole way around the figure, even under the feet. Thus, it won't stand. A lot of the detail of the sculpt was lost as well. There is a tiny pin hole in the center of its chest, and the chest is partially hollow. I think I can see a pin hole in the blue boar too. As far as bootlegs go, these are very low quality.

However, this is BB we are talking about. So that adds value right there. I'm not sure how to put a currency amount on that though. Also, there is only minimal nostalgia value because not many of us, unless we are Greek, had or knew of these as kids. There is a little bit of nostalgia just because it's BB related.

Also, not many of these come up, so on the one hand that makes it more rare and perhaps valuable, but also, it's not really conducive to collecting. Unlike other "rare' items like Greek Beasts or Gumball beasts, the chance of getting more of these is slim to none.

Finally, I offered $25 for the yellow crab and that was accepted. I kinda of feel like that was high though. I don't think too many people were that interested. However, the back story of the figure wasn't known at the time. Knowing the back story increases the value at least some, I'd say for sure.

So the bottom line is the figure is very low quality and not really a good display piece, getting a nice collection of these would be virtually impossible, but it's a piece of BB history. The best thing going for this piece is its connection to BB and that's about it, but that's an important "it."

[Beastformers]

Totally agree with Soupie on this one, I already had send the price to Beets but I didn't want to do it out in the open but since Soupie is doing it himself its ok and that being said its 'value' is known as well.

But knowing most of the interest on this fig will come from us its us that'll make the end price on this little boar, to prevent bidding against each other and making it an insane price while (due to its actuall quality) its not worth that much I think its a good thing to give one person a clear shot on this fig. With that being said I hope for the sake of history the Crab and Boar will be brought together in the end.

I've made a private offer of 25 euro shipped before I actually know what it was and thinking it was made of the same material as the GBB but it wasn't accepted. Looking back to it now I'm quite happy with the fact it wasn't accepted since it looks like this boar is one of the 'better' fabricated bootlegs within this Greek Ice Cream BB bootleg line but even than its a to generous offer.

After knowing all this (even with the history traced down, which is a good thing anyway) I wouldn't value these bootlegs to high and I agree with Soupie that $25 is already quite a high price. With its history known now and the quality of this specific figure it might have a little bit more collectors value but that being said I wouldn't be surprised to see that auction end with a winning bid of $9.99......... but guess that'll mostly depend on us.

Edited by GJNL, 03 May 2012 - 11:50 AM.

[organicbeets]

Looks like this little guy has some attention...up to $32.96.

A truly unique piece that im sure someone else will enjoy

[Beastformers]

For the stats; ENDED AT $51.00 + $10.00 shipping

Anyone on here who's the lucky person to add this 'rare' but at least nice figure to its collection?
Hope my research added some additional collectors value to this piece...........

Buying an ice cream in Greece back in the days would've been cheaper

Anyway its a cool little bootleg for any BB collector!

[Beastformers]

As expected it was just a matter of time now the Greeks know its a ´valuable´ piece more would pop up;

Another ´mega rare´ Decoy on Ebay

Guess we can skip the Mega rare part soon as this will certainly not be the last....
For the Greeks its worth digging their boxes now for these little ice cream fellows.



So one more can be added to the know list

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Edited by GJNL, 25 May 2012 - 05:30 AM.

[Toxoviper]

Don't know if I care for that backwards elephant arm look.

[organicbeets]

Yea, design is a little strange, but still pretty unique. This one seems to be in the best shape I've seen so far.

[Shadow Bat]

nice job finding all that info I have two to add from my collection, boar and elephant

[retroactive80z]

Well done mate. Cool stuff im not keen on them but there cool for other people. Jay

[ScreaminDemon]

I bought the blue boar on ebay. a little spendy but i had never seen one like that before.
I would really like to add to this line but i doubt we will see them go for a reasonable price any time soon.
I love how small it is! maybe someone could make a few bootlegs out of the existing figs on this forum to trade around. Not sure how you guys feel about that morally based on the value of such rare figs but its a thought.

[eazy1982]

ive noticed a lot of greek battle beasts that have different arms on them that go to other beasts were they made like that or did someone do it ive seen quite a few on ebay as well thats why i asked

[ScreaminDemon]

a lot of them came with the wrong arms because of the colors being the same in the factory.
the boar having the elephants arms is a common mistake and ive seen it a lot on ebay and forums.
whoever made the decoy had the arms on backwards as well which is unprofessional but its still a cool rare piece to me.

ps. same with the bat and the fox

Edited by ScreaminDemon, 24 July 2012 - 02:25 PM.

[Shadow Bat]

ive noticed a lot of greek battle beasts that have different arms on them that go to other beasts were they made like that or did someone do it ive seen quite a few on ebay as well thats why i asked

every beast had a mold partner, two bodies and four arms and the assembly people put them together. It's usually pretty easy to match arms to each other (though some people might not care) but then there was a 50/50 matching to the right body and even when the did their catalog half were mismatched which only encouraged it being wrong. then you had kids switching making it real bad
the matches are
lion and bird
deer and bear
tiger and giraffe
carp and gator
snake and toad
elephant and boar
rhino and buffalo
bat and fox
gorilla and tortoise
porcupine and spider
shark and sheep
dog and bison
rabbit and horse
weasel and crab

[ScreaminDemon]

Wow I had no idea there were so many common arm swapped figures.
I see that all of them had 50/50 chance. I had just guessed after seeing them on eBay.

Edited by ScreaminDemon, 26 July 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[Ericnilla]

Snagged this from Blackened, thought I would share

 

 greekmini.jpg   84.05K   42 downloads

 

Havent seen any pop up lately, any new ones pop up?

[Beastformers]

Snagged this from Blackened, thought I would share

 

greekmini.jpg

 

Havent seen any pop up lately, any new ones pop up?

 

They do not come by that often so its good to see one again and looks like a nice find if you have not paid a huge amount for it

Can you see/confirm whether there are pieces cut of from underneath the feet as it looks like this figure is standing pretty solid like the Yellow Crab shared somewhere in this topic above while the others still have some kind of plastic things attached under their feet which makes it unable for them to stand.

 

Wonder if someone has cut those of, I know I always cut of the pieces that effected the playabillity (is that a correct word!?) of my toys back in the days so pretty sure I would have done that with those myself as well, or whether there might have been 2 different lines of those with and without the stuff under their feet.